Pi In The Face
by teh Jai
Summary: They are Pi Squad: a group of Republic Commandos who got the short end of the naming stick. With a Jedi Master, they travel to a foresty planet and become embroiled in politics, high society, and demolitions. Discontinued.
1. Chapter 1: In Which A Premise is Given

**Author Notes: In Which Jai Attempts to Not Get Sued **

Star Wars and all ideas that exist within it belong to George and his Lucasfilm buddies. Not me. I seek to make no money from any of this, and if anyone out there thinks that there's a chance in hell that I could make a buck off of this, I'd like to know what the fierfek you're smoking. But Pi Squad and Sadri are mine. If you'd like to borrow them, ask. Chances are I'll say yes.

To those of you who, like me, absolutely _love_ the RepCom novels, I apologize for blatantlyreusing a majoridea from those stories. But this was half in my head before I even touched a RepCom novel.

Finally, yes. There _are_ and there _will be_ vast multitudes of pi jokes within this story. It's primarily a humour-fic after all. I'm not taking it all too seriously, and I hope that you don't either, and just let yourself be entertained.

Enjoy!

**Pi In The Face**

**Chapter One: In Which A Premise is Given, Although it May Be A Very Poor One**

_"Exploring pi is like exploring the universe" _- David Chudnovsky

The ship was a behemoth of metal; an _Acclamator_-class vessel christened the _Benzylic_ – over seven hundred metres from stem to stern, with firepower enough to bombard a planet into complete submission. She was a true machine of war. Inside and out, every inch of the ship was constructed so as to give the air of dominance. Everything was metal, shiny and new.

And the Jedi felt oddly out of place, standing on the bridge of the ship. The ship – and the one hundred thousand men that went along with it – that was under her control. Sullust had fallen into Separatist hands yet again, and it was up to her and these one hundred thousand men to bring it back into the fold again.

She was a Jedi Master now; having ascended to the rank only two months before.

Yet she had never, _ever_ been in control. She had never been a General. She had never directed a war.

She shivered as she stood there. The planet was coming closer. Soon they would have to engage.

Tilting her head, she stared into the endless expanse of stars that were visible outside of the main window of the bridge and smiled as a tinkly chime sounded over her comlink. The smile spread into a vaguely manic grin that brought life to her green eyes. She didn't know exactly what to do, so she had decided on the best course of action:

She'll make it up as she goes. She turned away from the bridge and went down a corridor, answering her comlink as she walked. Her smile disappeared as the message came through: A change of plans. The Council would send another Jedi to direct military actions on Sullust. For her, they had something a bit different...

-------

"So," Sadri Oboa said, in an authoritative voice as she entered the briefing room, "who put _you _losers on my ship?"

She was talking to four entirely identical but entirely different men, who wore expressions varying from passivity to evil grin. These were her personal batch of Republic Commandos: aptly named after her favourite food, they were designated as Pi Squad.

"The same person who put _you_ in charge," came the cutting reply from RC-2425, affectionately named Leeroy. "I mean, don't you remember what happened the last time we worked with you?"

"Yep," Sadri said, her deadpan flawless. "I had to come and round you up like a batch of lost pups." She grinned suddenly. "But it's a damn good thing to have you here." Leaning on the table, she picked up a datapad and pressed a button on it. "Rumour has it that there's a man by the name of Xav Marott who, in addition to being one hell of a rich man, has been channeling funds to the Separatists from his home planet of Adanac I."

"Now there's a big surprise." Leeroy interjected.

"Can it, would you?" This came from Ven. Ven, desginated as RC-9097, had the personality of an extremely hardened soldier – or, as Leeroy had declared the first time they'd all met, the personality of a very old and cranky man. If Pi Squad had a leader, it was Ven, and he was a solid contrast to Leeroy's class-clown persona, but nowhere near as ornery as his brother would claim.

"You get _one _more, Leeroy," Sadri said in a curt voice before continuing. "It's the same-old, same-old. The authorities at Coruscant want to freeze the largest of his accounts, except to do that, they need..."

"Access codes." Another member of Pi Squad spoke up: RC-2468, who had been given the nickname Jav. "Those are easy enough to procure with a bit of computer slicing."

"Unfortunately," Sadri said, rocking back and forth on her heels, "it's a bit more complex than that. Marott is known for never storing sensitive information like that in any sort of technological device. Ironically enough, his account has been encrypted by the Banking Clan to such a degree that, well, they can't get in. So..."

"So you need to somehow worm it out of the guy." The last member of the squad, RC-1259, otherwise known as Scrat, spoke very quietly as he provided his input to the conversation. Scrat was inexplicably shy – Sadri had only had a handful of conversations with him, whereas the rest of Pi Squad were talkative enough to make one's ears fall off.

"Exactly," Sadri said, nodding in Scrat's general direction.

"Okay," Leeroy said, raising his hand as though waiting for Sadri to call on him but speaking anyway, "then why d'you need us?"

"Because of the _and then_. Basically we have three objectives. Number one: I weasel the codes out of Marott, and relay them to the Coruscanti authorities, and Marott's account is frozen. However, getting the codes isn't going to be enough for the Chancellor's office. They want Marott... well... dispatched."

"Can't you do that?" Jav asked. "I mean, you _are _a Jedi..."

Sadri chuckled. "Which is precisely why I can't assasinate someone. Bad publicity for the Jedi and all that. That's what you boys are going to have to figure out. You know I can help out with the logistics of the thing, but beyond that it's in your hands. Once Marott is out of the way, we will proceed to destroy the heavy arms facility on Adanac I. This particular facility, which, of course, Marott's big creds are financing, is producing the majority of the Super Battle Droids that are being used by the Seps." She grinned and threw down the datapad. "Then a fleet will show up, Adanac I is brought back into the Republic, and we go home and get drunk."

"Yeah, right," Leeroy said under his breath. "Sounds pretty standard."

"I get to interrogate, Scrat gets to knock someone's head off, and we all get to blow up a really large factory." She paused, brow furrowed in thought. "Sounds like _fun_ to me."

"But ma'am – " Ven began, but Sadri immediately cut him off.

"Call me whatever you want, Ven, but _don't _call me 'ma'am' again, alright?" She made a face. "It makes me sound like I'm sixty. 'Hey You' or 'Sadri' or even 'General' works. But never 'ma'am'."

Leeroy made an odd coughing noise, as though he was stifling hysterical laughter. "Will you forgive me if I ever take you up on the Hey You bit, General?"

Sadri shook her head, laughing. "Maybe," she said. "But right now, we have more pressing matters. The _Benzylic_, as big and mighty and kick-ass as she is, is _not_ heading for Adanac I, so we need to get our stuff and hop on ..." She picked up the datapad again. "You're not gonna like what we're driving."

"It can't be that bad," Jav remarked as all five of them exited the briefing room and went toward the hangar bay.

"They gave us a _Consular­-_class. And something tells me that the paint is holding her together. She's probably older than Chancellor Palpatine."

"Okay, it _is_ that bad."

They had entered the hangar bay, and perched there, rusty and ancient and surrounded by crates containing their kit, was their vessel, which had clearly seen better days. Her paint scheme of blue and white was peeling in places, and the entire hull was dotted with spots of rust. Something in her innards was clicking in a manner that Sadri didn't like. She walked around the ship, eyeballing some of her more worrisome rust spots, and carefully evading the droids that were completing some last-minute welds.

"She's named the _Aniline_, and she's been given to us as-is. No mods. Well, I mean, she's been modified insofar as they strapped an automated turret to the roof of the thing, but..." Sadri scowled. "And we have to fly the damn thing ourselves."

"While I can fully appreciate that the Republic has bigger problems to handle," Ven said sourly, "you'd _think_ they'd let us have what we need to do our jobs."

"She should be able to carry everything that we need," Jav remarked, eyeing the ship with distate. "I think. How far do we have to go in this thing?"

Sadri consulted the datapad again. "A parsec or two if we get our butts in gear and go now," she said, pocketing her datapad. Scanning the labels on the kit boxes, she grabbed one that wasn't something caustic or explosive and hefted it onto her shoulder, and walking on board the _Aniline_. "Anytime now," she said, turning around and grinning at Pi before disappearing into the ship's hold.

-------

"We're not dead _yet_," Leeroy said with a shrug in response to Sadri walking up behind where he and Scrat were piloting. The _Aniline_ was making slow progress toward Adanac I, her engines thrumming hard the whole way. Once or twice Sadri heard a deafening _thunk_ from the aft of the ship and tried not to think of what crucial component may have just fallen off. They were preparing for the hyperspace jump now, a prospect that they all knew could be fatal if the _Aniline_ couldn't hold herself together.

"That's encouraging," Sadri said with a crooked grin as she nursed a cup of caf in her hands. "So barring anything _else_ falling off the rear of our ship, how long until we get to Pegwin?"

She was speaking of Adanac I's only settlement, apart from temporary mines and logging encampments. From the description that had been stored on her datapad, Pegwin was a city of just under three million settlers that lacked any sort of suburbia. The city spread over seven hundred square kilometres, and then simply ceased to exist. It then gave way to rolling, old mountains, vast forests of inep trees, and countless freshwater lakes. The Republic wanted its resources. The Confederacy of Independent Systems wanted its big money. Pegwin was the location of several small but affluent banks, where the assets of many a Separatist – but also many a Republican bigwig – were stored in vast vaults.

Leeroy shrugged. "If we're lucky," he said just as another ominous _thunk_ rent its way through the cockpit, "we'll be there in an hour."

"And if we're not?" Sadri said, taking a long swig of caf and smiling merrily as though nothing was wrong.

"If we're not, then that _thunk_ we just heard was the hyperdrive falling off." He turned to Scrat. "Have the coordinates ready?"

"Yes," Scrat said, his face a study in calm demeanour. "They're in the nav computer now."

"Okay," Leeroy swallowed audibly, his clownish personality failing just enough to show that he was clearly nervous. "Let's hope this works."

Sadri gripped her caf cup to the point where the flimsi was starting to buckle in her hands. Jav and Ven suddenly appeared behind her, and everyone watched and waited as Leeroy punched a button on the control panel. The three observers were thrown back against one another as the _Aniline_ managed to streak through the fabric of space-time.

"Ow." Sadri rubbed her chin, where the end of Jav's gauntlet had made a solid connection. She had collided with Jav, who had been thrown against Ven, and all three of them had ended up on their rear ends behind the pilots' seats. The view from out the windscreen was encouraging: stars streaked by as the ship continuted on her merry way toward Adanac I.

Leeroy sniggered. "I guess I should have told you to buckle up, huh?"

"Maybe," Sadri muttered.

The _Aniline_ continued its transit for the better part of an hour, finally dropping into realspace within suborbital range of the planet. Sadri and the four commandos stared out the viewscreen, each completely stunned by what the datapad could not convey.

The planet was tiny and green all over, flecked with blue and gray. It had no seas, just several large lakes. Pegwin was huge relative to the planet, clearly visible as an angry reddish blotch that marked its northern hemisphere. For somewhere that was considered to be a regional business hub, Sadri noted that it was strange that they seemed to be the only transit for parsecs.

"That's it?" Jav asked.

"Yep," Sadri sighed. "I hope you all brought bug spray."


	2. Chapter 2: Casual Camping

**Author Notes: In Which Jai Praises Her Readers and Reviewers:** Wow! I got some reviews! **Scribbles Editor**, **giveGodtheglory**, and **YodaBreaker** - thanks a million for your kind words and encouragement, and thanks for the add to the C2 community!

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'm going to try to work on my time-management skills and try to have Chapter Three up as soon as I can. Silly analytical chemistry. Oh! I do hope that those of you who found the _Benzylic _and the _Aniline _amusing (all, um, one of you) noticed that the reason I was using cyclics was because of their pi bonding systems! rimshot groan

* * *

**Chapter Two: In Which We Head To The Woods For Some Casual Camping and Note That Pegwin Just Might Be An Analogue of Toronto**

"And the black flies, the little black flies/Always the black fly no matter where you go..."

– Wade Hemsworth, _The Blackfly Song_

After coaxing the _Aniline_ into a somewhat gentle landing pattern in the woods a few kilometres outside of Pegwin, Sadri and Pi Squad were immediately presented with a challenge.

Ven, Scrat, Jav, and Sadri all stared down the landing ramp at a loudly swearing Leeroy, who was dancing about unhelmeted, waving his hands around his head in an attempt to quell the onslaught of a cloud of insects that appeared as though out of nowhere.

"Maybe if you put your helmet _on_..." Jav called.

"And what good'll that do if the _shabla_ things get inside?" Leeroy yelled in response.

"They'd die from the smell!" Ven said with a grin.

"Oh, shut up."

"Try using one of the repellent jars that Procurement gave us," Scrat said, rummaging around in one of the many crates that the _Aniline_'s cargo hold contained. "It'll keep the things off you."

Leeroy looked at his brother with sheer contempt as the can was tossed to him. He caught it expertly in midair and tore off the lid with relish. His look of contempt was replaced by a look of complete glee as he sprayed some of the liquid into his hands and rubbed it over his face. Immediately the flies maintained their distance from him.

"Sometimes your attention to detail makes up for your annoying silence, _ner vod_." Leeroy said with a sigh. "Now can we _all _get to work here?"

The others covered themselves with the unique repellent before stepping off the ship and noticed that the flies kept their distance from them as well. It had been decided that they would not set up their base of operations in Pegwin proper, but would play the role of recreational campers and utilize an old, abandoned miners' camp that was far enough away from the city to provide respite should they stir up a fracas or two inside, but close enough such that the sojourn into the city wasn't too much of an expedition. Camping was a common enough occurrence on Adanac I that Sadri and Pi Squad wouldn't create much of a stir by occupying the camp and lighting a fire or two.

The blackflies notwithstanding, the group found themselves facing a large cabin that was very well-kept for its age. None of them could tell exactly what it was made out of, but it appeared sturdy enough that they could move in. Leeroy led the way as the motley crew of Republic commandos and one Jedi Master walked through the doorway of the place.

"Remarkable," Jav commented. "The flies didn't get in here, and it's _clean_."

"Ooh, a fireplace," Sadri said, placing the boxes she'd offloaded from the _Aniline_ onto the floor and walking over toward one corner of the main room. "And a kitchen! Beautiful. No rations for us!"

"You'd cook for us, General? Aww, we feel so loved!" Leeroy said with a smart-aleck grin on his face.

"Of course I would, Leeroy, but that's all you're getting from me. I'm not touching your laundry," Sadri said with a grin. "So what say we get the rest of this stuff loaded, hide our ship as best we can, and then go and explore the wonderful city of Pegwin?"

"Tourism isn't exactly our strong point," Scrat said.

"I wouldn't call it tourism," Ven said. "Think of it more as recreational reconnaissance."

"Besides, you guys get to scope that foundry, and I get to discover exactly where this Marott guy hangs out." Sadri shook her head. "If you happen to wander into a few museums along the way or check out a curling game or two..."

"Curling?" Ven looked puzzled.

"Just some random sport they seem to be fond of here," Sadri said with a shrug. "I got bored once we punched to hyperspace, so I read every damn word in that datapad. This place is all about its culture and its sports, and the local cuisine. I suggest that while I'm worming numbers out of Marott you guys enjoy yourselves."

She turned to look at the four of them, who seemed vaguely apprehensive at the idea. In fact, they looked as though she had ordered them to march straight into a pot of boiling oil. "What'd I do?" she asked.

"Like Scrat said," Jav muttered, "tourism isn't our..._thing_."

"Pff." Sadri made a noise through her nose. "Fine, then. I just figured you'd take advantage of not being able to be suited up in that armour to-"

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa." Leeroy held up his hands to stop Sadri's speech. "What's this about no armour?"

"Well," Sadri said matter-of-factly, "it would stand to reason that you would _not_ be overly conspicuous while doing your recce of the foundry, because then all the Seps would know we're here and that just wouldn't be pretty. I don't know about you, but I don't think the five of us, no matter how good at asskickery we are, are going to survive long if we wake up a droid army." She glanced at all of them with little remorse in her look. As far as she was concerned, this was the way it was going to be.

Ven shrugged. "Good point," he said.

"I figured you'd see the light. Now, of course you'll be able to be _armed_ – I'm not that silly – but none of this stuff." She stepped forward and rapped her knuckles on Ven's breastplate. "Anyway, we'll get to all of that once we're set up in here," she said, stepping out the door and back to the _Aniline_.

Pi Squad watched her walk a few steps and then heard an ear piercing scream. Immediately they snapped into action, preparing to burst outside and secure the area around their cabin. They were making a beeline for the door when they saw Sadri come marching back into the cabin, movinq quickly so as to evade another cloud of blackflies. "Bug spray, please," she said with an irate expression. Mutely, Jav handed her a can. She sprayed it on her face and clothes, and handed it back to the confused commando. "Thanks."

She walked out the door again without much fuss.

"What the fierfek was that about?" Leeroy asked nobody in particular.

"I dunno," Jav said, still holding the spray can and looking scared. "She's one weird general."

* * *

"Okay, _why_ does the city need a giant freestanding tower?" Scrat asked, leaning out the speeder window and pointing at the Pegwin skyline. The vast expanse of kilometre-high skyscrapers gave the city a contemporary look; its architecture wasn't that dissimilar from Coruscant. The only different thing about this city was a monolithic structure that marked its geographic centre. It resembled a communications control centre and was so unbelievably tall that the closer they got to it, the more they had to crane their heads to take it all in.

"I have no idea," Ven said, reading a tourism holozine that detailed some of the large city's better known landmarks. "All this says is that it's two kilometres tall, took three standard years to build, that it's made of reinforced duracrete and plasteel, and that it has a _revolving restaurant_ at the top." He scratched his head. "Why would someone want to eat in a restaurant that spins?"

"I say we go there eventually," Sadri said from the front seat of the speeder where she was driving, "and see which one of you loses his lunch first. How does _that_ sound?"

"You're on," Leeroy said with another one of his grins. "So where are we going, exactly?" He shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable without his armour on. They had, for the time being, all donned the red tunic and pants that served as fatigues for the army.

Sadri looked at Leeroy through the rear-view mirror of the speeder. "Groceries and new clothes."

Jav groaned. "Just don't dress us in leather pants, please, General."

"Don't worry, I'm not that cruel. But remember that they don't know we're here, and we don't _want_ them to know..."

"Alright, alright, we understand."

"Besides, I have to pick up some fabric and thread."

"For what?" Scrat asked, settling himself back inside the speeder and turning to look at Sadri.

"I need new clothes too, you know."

"Yes, but why don't you just _buy_ them?"

"Scrat, you try being a woman who is almost two metres tall. Let's just say that your clothing options are rather... limited." She parked the speeder. "I think this might do the trick," she announced.

They clamoured out of the speeder and faced the hustle and bustle of Pegwin's shopping district. For a settlement with three million people, there sure seemed to be more than enough things to do and places to shop. Sadri turned to the commandos, who were thoroughly engrossed in surveying the city.

She let her mind poke into the Force to ascertain what they were thinking, and it amused her greatly: they were each attempting to remain professional and take this opportunity to do some informal reconnaisance of the area, but that attempt was failing in all of them. She mused that they hadn't seen much of any world save a battlefield, and quickly decided that before things got serious, she'd let them see a little more.

"So..." she began, gesturing for the four of them to go through the main doors of the shopping centre that lay ahead of them. "Let's get something to eat."

"Uh..." Ven began to come up with another excuse as to why they _shouldn't,_ but Sadri's glare cut him off as they walked through the crowded halls. Metropolitan Pegwin seemed to be such an amalgam of different cultures and fashion styles that nobody noticed Sadri's Jedi robes, nor the identical red uniforms that the identical clone soldiers in her wake wore.

They walked until they reached the dining section of the complex and elected to go to a pub-style restaurant that seemed to have hot fried meats as its general bill of fare. The five of them managed to get a large corner booth in the place, and they spent the majority of time in uncomfortable silence.

Sadri read her datapad again, brow furrowed in concentration as she sipped her fizzade through a straw. Leeroy watched across the table as Ven, who was seated beside her, tried not to look like he was taking an interest in what she was doing. With a stifled laugh, Leeroy elbowed Jav in the ribs and pointed, and the two of them laughed. He was then rewarded with a swift backhand across the back of his head from the calm and silent Scrat.

"Ow! What'd I do?" Leeroy yelped.

"It's not your business to take note of things like that," Scrat said, his voice even and calm.

"That doesn't mean we can't laugh at them." Jav added innocently.

"Shut _up_, you two," Ven said

Sadri looked up from her datapad with a quirked eyebrow and grinned at them. "Problem?"

"No ma' – er, no." Ven shrugged. Leeroy sniggered.

"Alright," she said, a knowing grin on her face as she went back to perusing whatever she had downloaded from the holonet. She always acted as though she knew exactly what was going on. Leeroy envied her that much.

Their meals arrived: baskets of mashed root vegetables, platters of seafood, and a delicious-smelling plate of fried bits of duck, breaded and served with sauce. Immediately they all dug in, piling their individual plates high with the steaming and vaguely unhealthy food.

"Are you sure you can pack all that away, General?" Jav asked, pointing to Sadri's plate, which had the most food on it out of all of them.

"Yep," she said, grabbing her fork and starting to eat.

After a few moments, she decided it was time to make her announcement. "So I was reading the latest issue of the holonet news from here," she said, sipping at her fizzade again, "and I think I've found Marott."

The four commandos grinned, and kept eating, but their attention was on her, so she continued. "His corporate offices aren't too far from here," she said. "He runs several businesses out of Pegwin: a logging conglomerate and an advertising firm."

"Advertising on cut-down trees," Leeroy said. "Why does that seem an odd combination to me?"

"It is," Sadri said, biting down on another duck piece. "But I guess in a place like this, you make money where there is money to be had. The logging conglomerate gets him the money and the advertising firm – oh dear." She looked down at the datapad, chuckling.

"What?" Ven looked at Sadri with concern.

"The advertising firm appears to get him the women," she said, still laughing. "It appears we're dealing with a womanizer here."

There was no response from Pi Squad – but all of them had stopped chewing and were staring at Sadri with that look again. She squirmed in her seat. "What?"

"So... what does that mean, exactly?" Jav asked.

"It means that with the right dress and the right alias, I just might get to him sooner than we thought. He's holding some social fundraiser in a few days for a charity group he spearheads. If I make a donation of a few thousand credits, I might be able to go."

"Then what?" Now Ven was speaking.

"Then I persuade him to tell me what I want to hear," she said, that knowing smile back on her face. "It's as simple as that, really. Just a little _persuasion_."

* * *

Aw, man. I hate cliffhangers. Hope you liked it and an R&R is always appreciated. 


	3. Chapter 3: Meeting Marott

**Chapter Three (point one four one five nine): In Which We Meet Xav Marott, the Pimp of the Story, and Jai Starts To Do Something That's Been Done Before**

"Don't frost the pie." – Quote from _Alias_

"But why does it have to be _leather_?" Jav's voice was almost a whine as he watched Sadri offload a large pacakge containing sewing supplies, fabrics, and, yes, leather. The second day of their deployment had dawned quite hot and humid, and Pi Squad and Sadri had spent the morning making the cabin look somewhat habitable.

"Because I know it'll bother you," Sadri said, her face set as she balanced the package in her arms and tried not to spill its contents all over the forest floor. A roll of black ribbon rolled down the side of the box, and Jav managed to catch it and place it back atop the pile of stuff. "Actually, the leather is pretty hardy stuff - and the body armour I picked up was black... so I colour matched." She huffed a little as she climbed the stairs into the cabin.

"Are you sure you don't want me to help?" Jav asked, walking in step with her as she clamored through the hallway and turned left into the room – one of three in the cabin – that she'd picked out and declared her space.

Sadri wobbled slightly as she turned the box to get it through the doorjamb. "Nah, I'm good." She placed the box on the very large bed that took up the majority of the space in the bedroom. "I guess I'll start working on this later. I'm hungry. Did Scrat and Leeroy manage to come back from picking up dinner?"

Jav shrugged apologetically. "Not yet." They'd managed to buy a second speeder – a small ground-based machine – and had sent Jav's two brothers on lunch detail. Ven was outside, checking the _Aniline_ for any kit that they may have forgotten. They could hear faint strains of smazzo music coming from outside.

Sadri angled her head out the window and snorted. It looked as though Ven was dancing around the hold of the _Aniline_, lost in the music that was coming from a source she couldn't identify. She pointed out the window and looked at Jav, who burst out laughing at the spectacle.

"Is he always like that?" Sadri asked, her eyes fixed on the commando who was oblivious to she and Jav's observations.

"Ven's a special guy," Jav said, still laughing. "And, as you can clearly see, is _nothing _like the old man Leeroy claims he is. We're still trying to figure out where he gets his taste in music from."

Sadri was amused by Jav's tendency to speak very quickly. His voice was thinly accented and his enunciation was good enough that it rarely caused confusion, but it gave one the impression that he was always hopped up on strong stims. Or just too many cups of caf. Her eyes flicked toward Jav. "And the dancing abilities?"

"Oh, our training sergeant thought that dancing was a good way to stay quick-footed, so we were all taught how." He shrugged. "I just guess Ven didn't consider it akin to torture like the rest of us did..."

"Good. Maybe I can take Ven to Marott's party with me." She made a face, still looking out the window. The song had changed over – no doubt Ven had patched into Pegwin's music channels – and he was now closing out the ship.

"I'm sure he'll be pleased," Jav said with only a hint of sarcasm. "First tourism, then shopping, and now you're going to take him to a party? Makes one hell of a first date, General."

Sadri glared at Jav, and she could feel her cheeks burning. "You think so, huh?"

Jav looked stricken, and he held up both hands. "Sorry, ma'am."

"Jav."

"Sorry. I'm just telling you what it looks like. And maybe that's what you're going for, but all I'm doing is just observing. Don't kill me, please. I'm not the tactician, I just like to blow things up. " Jav's speech was heading for lightspeed and despite the veiled insinuations Sadri was mildly amused.

Sadri pounced on the chance to change the subject. "Oh really?"

"Yes."

"Good." She rummaged through her box and grabbed some material and thread. "Come with me and we'll look at those holocharts Leeroy downloaded for us before he left to get those nerf burgers. We can figure out how to make the foundry go _boom-boom_ without taking half of Pegwin with it."

The holocharts shimmered in mid-air above the cabin's kitchen table, and Sadri and Jav both studied them intently.

"It looks as though the foundry is sharing walls with this bank and this office building," Jav said with a worried expression. "So we can't just go in there and start blowing the _osik_ out of the place. We might have to go in later today and take a look, just to see how everything's connected."

Sadri nodded. "Further to that, it looks as though the entire place is enclosed. Even the docking bays and shipping zones seem to be _inside_ the structure. When you bring it down, you'll have to worry about more than just droid parts..." She leaned back on her chair and folded her arms across her chest. "I guess you're right, though. We'll have to take a look this afternoon. I was planning on trying to hunt down Marott today."

"Have you figured out your backstory yet?" Jav asked. "About how rich and famous you're going to be?"

Sadri laughed, shutting off the holoprojector and picking up her sewing. "The Council's more or less set me up with a _very_ good alias. My name is Alice Chespo and I'm the Dean of Environmental Studies at Aldera University." Squinting one eye closed while she threaded her needle, she continued. "It works out perfectly. The _real_ Alice Chespo is well aware of what's happening and she's being a dear and is _hiding_ while we get this done."

"Well, you know that won't fly unless she looks like you," Jav said with a shrug.

"Alice Chespo is my cousin, or so the Council tells me, and we look alike enough so that nobody here can tell the difference." She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Where _are_ those two, anyway?"

"Hungry?"

"You bet," Sadri said just as the whine of a deactivating speeder reached her ears. She threw the piece of fabric she had just started stitching together over the back of one of the huge cushioned chairs and went to the front door. Interestingly enough, the hot and humid weather kept the blackflies at bay. Being outdoors was now actually tolerable. "I hope you brought enough for everyone!" she called out to the two men.

"More than enough, General," Leeroy replied. "We've seen you eat, so we planned accordingly."

Sadri laughed. "Very observant of you." She held the door open so that they could enter the cabin with minimal effort.

"It's what we're trained to do," Leeroy said with a wink as he pulled a nerf burger out of a flimsi bag and handed it to her. "Be observant, I mean. Not fetch dinner."

Sadri simply shook her head and bit into the burger. It wasn't half bad. Her mind was elsewhere, though – on the events that would take place later. She couldn't stop thinking about what might happen when she would meet Marott.

"_So it seems that we were right. The foundry shares load bearing structures with several adjacent buildings, so if we decide to bring it down it's going to have to be one carefully done job."_

"That's fair enough," Sadri said in reply to Jav's voice. She was wearing a discreet comlink that fit snugly into her ear, and speaking in a low voice as she walked purposefully down one of Pegwin's main thoroughfares. While Pi Squad were doing their investigation of the droid foundry, she was doing a bit of reconaissance of her own: namely, figuring out how to get invited to Xav Marott's fundraiser.

She had it half figured out; using her Alice Chespo guise, she would max out her account in order to make a large donation to Marott's cause.

That coupled with her very gender would essentially guarantee her invitation, she reasoned.

"_How much longer until you're at Marott's offices?"_ This voice belonged to Ven.

"I can see it from here," Sadri said. "I might be about fifty metres from the entrance. You guys care to listen in?"

"_It's your mission, General, but I suppose since we're to see to your well-being, it wouldn't hurt."_

She chuckled. "You mean you were sent here to babysit me? I feel so childish now."

"_Orders are orders, ma' – er..."_

"Never mind. I'm going in."

"_Scrat should be in your vicinity soon, just in case."_

"Very well," she said, rolling her eyes to herself as she walked up to the door. Eyeing the expensive polished durasteel doors, she composed herself for a split second, drawing on the Force to stay calm, and then walked in.

The receptionist behind the desk looked up as she walked in. Sadri was no longer clothed in her Jedi robes, but wore an assortment of street clothing that she'd seen on one of the displays in the shopping centre. She wasn't knowledgeable in the ways of fashion, but judging by the look on the woman's face she wasn't exactly out of style.

Sadri decided to play up the notion of glamour and tossed her head to the side, shaking out her blonde hair. "I hear Mr. Marott is having a fundraiser?"

The receptionist nodded. "Yep," she said gruffly. "Invitation only, though."

"Well," Sadri said, "you can let him know that Dean Chespo from Alderaan is _very _interested in attending because she's interested in making a _very _sizeable donation." She put a bit of the Force behind her words, attempting to influence the receptionist into calling Marott immediately to discuss the matter.

"Oh, most definitely!" The other woman seemed a lot more animated now, and punched a code into a comlink, essentially repeating to Marott what Sadri had just said.

The mind influence had worked, but a little _too_ well, it seemed, because Marott was down on the ground floor immediately, smiling at Sadri while eyeing her appraisingly. His intentions were brutally transparent, and Sadri had to check herself for a moment to stop herself from beating him around the head. The man looked immensely smitten, and she knew right away that he intended to eventually get more from her than a donation.

He led her to a turbolift where a very familiar man stood, dressed in a janitorial uniform and looking up at the display intently. It was Scrat. She hadn't even noticed him, but he was doing his job well. She winked at him, and he smiled slightly.

"Hello," Sadri said to him, playing the part of courteous stranger. "We'd like the... um..."

"One hundredth floor, please," Marott said, not even looking at Scrat. "So, Alice – may I call you Alice? – I've heard much about your environmental conservation work. I do believe your presence will give my charity the limelight it deserves."

Sadri smiled. "It's terribly important to put these concerns in the limelight," she said. "So I intend to do what I can to get the issues raised in the right circles that will elicit change."

"It sounds like we might have a beneficial partnership," he replied, still gazing at her with that appraising look. His fervent thoughts were unavoidable to Sadri, who was groaning inwardly with the lecherousness of it all.

_If he looks at me like that one more time, I swear I'll..._

The turbolift doors pinged.

Sadri and Marott exited.

"I'm in," she muttered, poking her finger in her ear.

"I'm not coming out."

Pi Squad were all standing outside Sadri's bedroom door. The solicitation had been a success – Sadri had been invited to Marott's fundraiser, and it was now all over the local holonews that Alice Chespo would be coming from Alderaan in two days to attend it.

Except, of course, that the woman Marott thought was Alice Chespo was now cowering in a room in a log cabin outside of Pegwin. She was also inexplicably moody and refused to exit said room.

"C'mon," Leeroy said placatingly. "So you're on the news, what's wrong about that?"

"I might blow your cover," Sadri said irritably, "and besides, I have no desire to be fondled again. Have you _seen_ this outfit? It makes me look like a hussy."

"You'll fit right in, then."

"Shut up, Leeroy," Ven said, poking his brother in the shoulder hard. "General, this isn't going to end well unless you come out of there. We still have things to discuss."

"Like _what_?"

"Like what _we're_ going to wear."

The door opened a crack, casting light on Sadri's eyes. They glowed briefly, like those of a vinecat caught in speeder headlights. "What?"

"You seriously don't think we're not going to come?" He put his hands on his hips and stared at her evenly.

"I seriously think you _aren't_," Sadri said, folding her arms across her chest. "You have your objectives, and I have mine. Why don't you guys go and... oh I don't know... plan how you're going to blow up that damn foundry?"

Ven looked vaguely crestfallen, but nodded nonetheless and shuffled the rest of his squad away.

"What's got her so angry?" Jav wondered aloud as the four of them walked toward their bedroom doors. Night was falling and the next two days looked to be very exciting. Since they could get a decent sleep, the commandos elected to go for it and actually put in a good ten hours' worth.

"Marott wasn't exactly a gentleman," Scrat said, pausing at his and Leeroy's door to open it. "He spent most of their meeting trying to, ah..."

"Get into her pants?" Leeroy offered with a sly grin as he followed Scrat inside. "She's a Jedi, I'm sure she can handle it. We should just mind our own business and concentrate on the demolition we've got to plan."

"Wow, that's the first time you've ever made sense in all the time I've known you, _ner vod_," Ven said, his voice strangely cool as he disappeared into his room.

Ven knew she most likely wouldn't let him in, but he knocked on her door nonetheless. He hadn't been able to sleep because of the issues which kept creeping up to the surface of his mind.

"Come in." Her voice carried, projecting through the closed door which he promptly opened. Sadri reclined in her chair; her almost-completed outfit hanging on a dress stand. From what he could see of it, the black leather would make her very attractive indeed. A distraction to all the men at that party.

The truth was that she distracted him just by existing. What she was wearing right now - a loose pant-and-tunic ensemble that fit her just so – even seemed glamorous to his standards.

She noticed that he was staring at her. "Can I help you?"

"Yes," he said, trying not to put his focus back on her. He then spoke one word that made Sadri freeze.

"Yavin."

That was where they'd first worked together. It held many memories, because Yavin was the planet on which Sadri had faced her greatest trial. It was when she'd first met each of them and formed what was a solid friendship with the four of them.

It was also the planet they were coming back from when something very interesting and dangerously forbidden had occurred.

The military and the Jedi Order probably had many euphemisms for what had happened, but the reality of it was that Sadri, stuck in the grief that her trial had unearthed, and Ven, stuck in the monotony and adrenaline crash of an operation, had spent most of the transit back home in Sadri's cabin. They had spent that time engaging in activities that Jedi were _not_ encouraged to do and that nobody figured a clone would think of doing.

And _all_ of Pi Squad knew exactly what had happened. It explained the raucous laughter that ensued any time Ven would even look at Sadri. And something about the way she would smile at him made him wonder if it _wasn't_ something meant to happen only one time.

"Yes, what about it?" Her eyes were out of focus. Her mind was somewhere else. Ven could tell. And he had an inkling of exactly where it was. He watched her lick her lips slightly.

"What did it mean?" He looked Sadri in the eye and watched her stiffen. He couldn't deny that he was physically attracted to her, and it was likely that she thought the same of him. But whatever was happening between them was definitely transcending looks. His only worry was that the entire thing was all in his head.

"You tell me first," she said.

"Well," Ven leaned on the doorjamb and looked her in the eyes. "For one thing, I can't get you out of my head."

"That changes everything." Her normally jovial persona was completely gone. Sadri's voice was alarmingly icy and she just stared daggers at him.

"Why are you being so cold?"

"The reality of everything just hit me now. You sound like you're in love with me. I can sense that you're in love with me. This whole thing we have going right now just.. just isn't right – and I was stupid for letting it even happen way back on Yavin." She made a face and turned away from him. "We made a mistake, Ven. I'm not saying I regret it, but it was a mistake. And it's a dangerous thing if we let that mistake repeat itself."

"I can live with danger," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and making her turn around to face him. "And with the consequences of my own actions."

"But – " Her voice quivered slightly, and she shifted uneasily in her seat.

"You're not stupid," Ven said, leaning down to look in her flashy green eyes. Maybe he was too close. He didn't care. All he wanted was to be closer to her. "And neither am I."

She stiffened suddenly and shook her head. "I can't, Ven. Not now. There's too much at stake… If I do this I won't be able to do what I need to.." She stood up and grabbed him roughly by the arm, showing him to the door, and not looking at him whatsoever. "You know how I feel, but now just… isn't the time."

Ven let himself be shoved rather ungracefully out the door, heard it click, and spent quite a few minutes staring at it, wondering what she meant, and wondering exactly what was at stake.

Women were confusing.


	4. Chapter 4: Persuasion

**Author's Notes: In Which Jai Thanks You All For Waiting For Forever** Well, here it is. This was a hard part to get through. 8D Many thanks to all readers and reviewers, both here and on forum. I appreciate all your kind words, and your patience - It's been a very, very long time, I know. And we've reached the halfway point of the story! I have three more chapters planned after this, and then... a sequel. Which will be much more SRS BZNSS than this fic.

* * *

**Chapter Four: In Which The World Ends for Ven Because He Figures Out What Sadri Meant When She Said She'd "Persuade" Marott**

"_Long enough_." - RC-1136, 'Darman'

"Is it remote det time?" Jav was positively jumping up and down with glee and Sadri wondered why all the commandos seemed to be reverting to a child-like state of mind.

The holocharts were back up on the kitchen table, this time showing a blue grid laid out amongst the normal green lines of the factory plans. Pi Squad and Sadri stood around them, watching intensely. It had been decided that the best plan of action to disable the droid foundry would be to blow it up at a remote distance: Sadri wasn't in the mood to have to fetch dead commandos out from under rubble, and besides, a remote strategy lent itself well to the covert nature of their operation.

"Soon," Sadri said, trying very hard to be reassuring and to not laugh in Jav's face. "Your recon the other day went well; judging by the height of the building and the particular density of the material it's made of, you should be able to lay your dets in this area-" she indicated the blue grid, "without destroying the surrounding area."

"Like a _controlled_ demolition." Jav spat out the words as though they tasted funny.

"Yes, Jav, and I'm sorry that you don't get to watch the big boom, but if it'd make you feel better you can lay strip cams when you go in. Then you can watch it on a large screen, just like one of those curling games the people around here are addicted to."

"I'd like that," Jav blurted out, his speech pattern quickening again as he downed another cup of caf. "I'd like that very much."

Sadri patted Jav on the head. "I know you would," she said calmly. "So. I figure that I'll come up with some excuse to meet up with Marott, and you guys can go and lay those dets. We're still left with one issue."

"How to get Marott's bank numbers?"

"Precisely, Leeroy. He seems to be a very skeptical individual. He doesn't trust people easily." Sadri sighed, her eyes flickering down to the floor for the briefest of moments before she brightened again and looked back up at all of them. "Fortunately, he does have a weakness."

All the commandos looked confused. Except Scrat.

"Women," he volunteered quietly.

"Bingo." Sadri nodded. "It seems like I'm going to have to try and be his girlfriend. That might get me into a position where I'll be privy to the information we need."

Ven blinked slowly. "Can't we just drag that out of the systems?"

Leeroy snorted and shoved his brother in the shoulder. "No, you _di'kut_, remember what she said when we got here? It's not _in_ any system. Or I'd have gotten it by now."

Sadri grinned. "Exactly. So I'm going to have to appeal to his baser nature."

"And how far are you going to go with that?" Ven's dark eyes flashed anger as he looked at Sadri, and wiped the grin right off the Jedi Master's face. It was as though he had just figured something out, and he _didn't_like the conclusion his mind had drawn.

Her face was like ice as she glared at him. "As far as is necessary."

Ven did _not_ glare back. In fact, he didn't even look at her. "Of course, General," he said, reverting to that forced formality that she disliked immensely.

Sadri pursed her lips. This was why their relationship couldn't happen. This was why she didn't let him do anything more than kiss her the night before. There were a thousand things she wanted to say to Ven – _it's my duty and I have to do it even though I would much rather be with you oh why can't you see how much this is killing me leave but don't leave – _but she said absolutely _nothing._

She took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'm going to the lake," she announced, grabbing a can of insect repellant and leaving the cabin, slamming the door on the way out.

All of Pi Squad dealt their squad leader a strange look.

"Okay, what was that all about?" Leeroy asked, grunting slightly as Scrat slapped him over the head.

* * *

She was _not_ fit for this job. Even if most of Pi Squad would disagree with her. She was sure that they admired her for her resilience and sense of duty, and were probably wondering what had kept her out here for more than an hour.

Ven probably had a few things to say to her about her so-called sense of duty, though. Doubtless he felt betrayed, despite the fact that they had a relationship that was completely undefinable in her mind. She'd kicked Ven out of her room the previous night because she_knew_ that if anything happened between them, she wouldn't see this operation with Marott through. Jedi or not, she was too _busy_ and he was too _important_ for them to be sneaking off in the middle of the night to engage in ridiculous yet thrilling trysts, hoping that nobody would see – It was a relationship that was based on several things that Sadri, in her position of Jedi Master, should not have allowed herself to feel in the first place.

Sadri growled to herself, sitting against the rocks, up to her neck in cool lake water. She could see the log cabin-slash-base of operations beyond a grove of trees. Lights were on, and she could smell something vaguely edible cooking. She wondered who was actually doing the cooking. Probably Scrat: he definitely won the Most Likely To Retire From The GAR And Be A Domestic award in her eyes. She pondered the irony of the whole situation. Were it not for the importance of their operation, she could have easily imagined the entire thing to be a camping trip with some friends.

And they _were_her friends, these idiosyncratic clones of a bounty hunter. Their individuality and humanity didn't surprise her at all – what really intrigued her was the variance of personalities that this band of brothers had. The fact that they were worldly wise enough to realize the line she was walking, and gutsy enough to actually crack jokes about it continued to be a mystery that even she couldn't figure out.

The Force rippled suddenly, and she turned back toward shore and saw him there, waist-deep in water, a grin on his face as he noticed her. She froze, uncertain of what to do, then decided that she would _not_pay attention to the way the water was clinging to his skin, which was less blemished with scars than it could have been.

"Shouldn't you be cooking?" she asked, looking up into his eyes. He didn't seem at all to be bothered by this awkward situation.

Ven grinned, his dark eyes sparkling, and Sadri wondered what was causing his sudden change in mood. "Shouldn't you not be out here without cover?"

She folded her arms over her chest, providing all the cover that she could manage what with her robes and towel folded neatly on the beach about twenty metres away. Her eyes remained fixed on Ven's face. Despite the fact that millions of men looked just like him – and they weren't exactly aesthetically unpleasant, either – the combination of good looks and a personality that complimented hers made him very unique and very attractive to her. She smiled.

"Speaking of _without cover_," Sadri nodded in his general direction, "what are you doing out here?"

"It's hot," he said, diving into the water and resurfacing in front of her. "And I figured we should talk. You know. About your little task."

Sadri took a deep breath and continued to stare into Ven's exotic face. "Okay," she managed to eke out. "What about it?"

"You know you don't have to do it like this," he said quietly, moving closer to her. He placed his hands on the rock face, boxing her in, forcing her to keep looking at him. "I mean, just … all for the information?"

"The Council wants it to be as bloodless as possible," she said, attempting to maintain her sanity, because this was rapidly becoming awkward and uncomfortable. "This is the only way I can do what they want and do what I need to do."

"But…"

"Would you disobey an order?" Sadri's eyes bored into Ven, an attention-grabbing shade of green, and she watched him close his mouth, suddenly lost in thought. The Force rippled again, her sight showing her a red-tinged aura over both of them. The aura was growing, expanding, sending a message straight to her unconscious mind.

"I don't know," he replied. "It would all depend. But you… you have the choice?" He lowered his head, then looked up at her. "Don't you?"

She sighed, taking one step forward, not even realizing that she was doing so. "I can choose," she said quietly. "And… I've already chosen."

"What do you mean?" Ven's thoughtful look changed to one of confusion, and he straightened, looking uneasy with the crypticness of Sadri's statement. His focus was elsewhere, and he almost jumped straight out of the water when she put her hand on his shoulder and took another step. She was close enough that he could embrace her.

But she didn't answer his question.

Not with words, anyway.

* * *

It was very strange to be in Pegwin's city centre, in full armor, sitting in the back of a transport vessel that they had liberated earlier that day, waiting for the shopping crowds to subside so that they could enter the foundry. Leeroy had done an excellent job of overriding the security programming that kept the place under wraps most of the time. As far as the programming – and therefore the Separatists – knew, absolutely nothing was wrong with the foundry and there were most definitely _not_ four Republic Commandos waiting to bust in. This sort of clash between military and civilian life had become distressingly normal for Ven and the rest of them, but they made no complaints.

Far from it, actually: Jav was surveying his plethora of explosives and whistling a jolly tune to himself, Scrat was checking and rechecking his Deece, and Leeroy was still poring over his datapad, not moving except to beat Jav over the helmet when the whistling finally got to him. Jav quickly cut out of the shared comlink and continued to whistle, judging by the rhythmic movment of his helmet.

And all the while Ven could hear Sadri as she spoke with Marott. The girl definitely had a pair, considering that she – as Alice Chespo, of course – had chosen to meet up with the man at a glittery tapcaf_directly across_ from the foundry. Both her voice and Marott's voice only came through when the band chose to stop playing music, and that didn't happen very often. But he knew she could hear him.

"Who the hell designed this city, anyway?" he grumbled. "First the giant Tower of Pointlessness, and then they have factories in the middle of the city and surround them with _restaurants_."

Over the one-way channel Ven could hear Sadri snicker, and try to cover it up with a cough.

"Careful," Leeroy interjected, a grin in his voice. "You might make her choke on her drink, and then we're out a chef."

"I thought the stew tasted _fine_," Scrat said, eyeballing the scope on his Deece. "Either that or you're worried if General Oboa dies you'll lose your chance to have her."

Now Ven was laughing. Scrat might have been the quietest one of them all, but there were still times where his deadpan would deliver a very glorious insult to one of them, and it always left them reeling.

Leeroy chuckled. "Blondes aren't my thing," he said casually. "Anyway, how's she doing?"

Ven grunted. "She's going to go deaf if she stays in there much longer. How's the pedestrian traffic?" He checked his chrono; it was 1700 hours. Stores were now closed, meaning a lot less civilians to notice what they were doing.

"It's getting lighter. Slowly."

"Oh,_lovely_."

"Well, you know, we _could_ go in, it doesn't look like they're concerned about this place…"

"Forget it." Ven craned his neck to look outside the transport, his eyes falling on the few civilians who were still out in the street despite the fact that it was growing darker. He sighed. "D'you know who we have to talk to in order to get some of that matte-black kit? It'd make me feel a bit better." Most squad leaders would be yelling at their brothers to take a nice warm cup of shut the fierfek up, but Pi Squad had been trained to babble and yet _operate_ simultaneously.

Considering that their training sergeant - a hard-as-nails woman called Sal Vantada - had a penchant for never shutting up and yet maintaining hyperawareness, it wasn't all that surprising.

"Nobody on this planet, that's for sure. And I don't think Sal is all chummy with Omega Squad, anyway. " Leeroy tapped at his datapad some more. "But the good news is that the override is holding. Ahh, and something interesting: There'll be some scheduled downtime in about five minutes. If we're going to go, I say we go _then_. That way if we fall down we'll have time to get back up again as opposed to becoming droid parts ourselves."

Ven continued to stare at the street, allowin g himself one glance at the tapcaf where he knew Sadri was. "Sounds good, Leeroy. Scrat, Jav – you ready?"

Jav tapped the multitude of utility containers strapped to his belt. "Always am."

Scrat just nodded, strangely relaxed, his hands on his weapon.

"Okay then." Ven checked his own weapon, and Leeroy and Jav followed suit. "How much time?"

"Two minutes."

"Remember, we're just setting up. No _big boom_ today."

"Yeah," Jav said with a disappointed sigh. "I know."

"Your time will come, _ner vod_," Leeroy said, clapping his brother on the back firmly while looking at his own chrono. "One minute, thirty."

They crowded around the back door of the transport. It was closest to the receiving dock of the foundry. Jav had his hand on the door release. "On your mark, Leeroy."

Utter silence reigned in the transport, apart from the muted bassline of the music coming from Sadri's tapcaf, which only Ven could hear. The squad leader shifted nervously on his feet, and momentarily cut himself out of the squad comm channel.

"Sadri," he breathed. "I – just be careful."

He switched over, heard Leeroy declare "Mark.", and wrenched open the door.

It was _on_ now.


End file.
